Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Chapter 2 - True Intimacy Day 5 For a seed to sprout, first it has to be sealed somewhere inside. Then it sprouts. True intimacy is a combination of all emotions and feelings. Everything will be there. There can only be two things in the world-one is indifference, another is love.  You can be indifferent to somebody, or you can love somebody. Love can take any flavour. You can be angry with someone and there Is love there. see, you only get angry at people whom you love.  You won't be angry at someone on the street with whom you have no connection. vhen vou have something to do with somebody, when you relate vourselt witn someone, then you get angry at them. So two things are there - indifference and intimacy, or love. Indifference means inertia, like a table. When indifference has died in you, you see that every one of us is connected. We are all intimate.  So we don't try to connect ourselves. We are very natural. See, you know some people for a long time, m...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷                  Chapter 4          Beyond the layers of existence       🌻 Day 37 🌻 महतः परमव्यक्तमव्यक्तात्पुरुषः परः । पुरुषान्न परं किञ्चित्सा काष्ठा सा परा गतिः ॥ Beyond the intellect is ego. Ego arises from undifferentiated Consciousness. Consciousness arises from Brahman. Brahman is the first cause and the last refuge! Beyond the ego is Mahat Tattva. Take a strand of hair and cut it vertically 100 times. Take one of these strands and again cut it 100 times, the tip of that one strand is the size of an atom. Ego is a 100 times finer than the atom. They have described the dimension of the ego! 100 times finer than that ego is mahat tattva, the principle called mahat! The word Mahatma is a title, which means the one who has transcended the ego. All saints are called mahatmas. In Sanskrit, mahatma means one who has become one with the mahat tattva. Many times finer, 1000 times ...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷               Chapter 4         Beyond the layers of existence      🌻 Day 36 🌻 इन्द्रियेभ्यः परा ह्यर्था अर्थेभ्यश्र्च परं मनः । मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्बुद्धेरात्मा महान्परः ॥ Giving more importance to the senses, than to the objects of senses is wisdom. Senses are incapable of performing but mind wants it. Eyes are tired but the mind wants to see the movie, complete it. Your brain is tired, but the mind is very curious to watch the movie. How many of you have watched movie like that? You have given importance to the movie, more than the eyes.  Give more importance to the senses than the objects of senses. Give more importance to the mind than to the senses and more importance to the intellect than the mind. When the intellect that is beyond the mind, say this is not good for you, just don’t do it. We often don’t listen to our intellect. We go by what our mind says, and it goes wi...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷                 Chapter 4        Beyond the layers of existence       🌻 Day 35 🌻 यस्य ब्रह्म च क्षत्रं च उभे भव ओदनः । मृत्युर्यस्योपसेचनं क इत्था वेद यत्र सः ॥ None else can know the omnipresent Self whose glory sweeps away the rituals of the priests and the powers of the warriors and puts death itself to death! To which the knowledge and activity both are food, death eats away that life. Death eats away all events. Death takes time in its lap. In Indian languages, if somebody dies, they say, they have been taken away by time. In Tamil they say kalamaita – they merged into time. Death eats away all the impressions, eats all forms. And this Self, this Brahman eats death itself! You can neither acquire the Self by knowledge nor by action. Nor can death deny it. Because, death, knowledge and actions are food for the Self. It eats them away. It is much bigger than them. When ...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷              Chapter 4         Beyond the layers of existence      🌻 Day 34 🌻 अशीररँ शरीरेष्वनवस्थेष्ववस्थितम् । महान्तं विभुमात्मानं मत्वा धीरो न शोचति ॥ What is required to see the Formless in the form? It needs great courage. One who is able to see the Formless in the ocean of forms, in the ocean of emotions, which the world is, sees the quiet, Non-changing, subtle bliss. He is dheera, the brave one, the courageous one. नाविरतो दुश्र्चरितान्नाशान्तो नासमाहितः । नाशान्तमानसो वाऽपि प्रज्ञानेनैनमाप्रुयात् ॥ The Self can be attained only by those whom the Self chooses. The Self can’t be known by anyone, who desist not from unrighteous ways, controls not his senses, stills not his mind and practises not meditation.  ‘One who has not retired from unrighteous things’ – what is unrighteous? That which you don’t want anyone to do to you, if you are doing that to others, it is unright...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷                 Chapter 4          Beyond the layers of existence       🌻 Day 33 🌻 The Self is formless in the midst of forms. All these forms – one is yelling, one is shouting, one is calm, one is crying, one is laughing; all these forms behaving in various ways are all just permeated by one form that is my Self! It is Changeless in the midst of change. Everything is changing but that One Thing is not changing. When you are so hard on yourself you say, “Oh! Nothing is changing. I am not changing.” My dear, look a little deeper. When you feel you are not changing, that too is the true! There is something in you that is not changing. Forget about your behaviour, your feelings and other things. Everything around is changing and what is not changing is the True Thing inside you. Instead of looking at the unchanging, you are saying the changing is not changing. That is ig...

Question - Gurudev, how can one be in choice less awareness, so that we know what choices need to be made in the present moment? Gurudev Sri Sri - If a piece of charcoal and a banana is kept in front of you to eat, what is your choice? Is there a choice? Think about it. When you don't know that it is a banana or charcoal then there is a choice. But if you know that the banana is edible and the other is a charcoal, then where is the choice? Knowledge brings wisdom which brings clarity. Confusion means lack of wisdom and no clarity at that moment. Then how to bring wisdom? Relax and meditate.

Javitri or Mace & Jaiphal or Nutmeg  Did you know that Javitri or Mace & Jaiphal or Nutmeg derived from the same oval-shaped hard seed of Myristica fragrans plant is known to cure insomnia?  Jaiphal-Javitri, Nutmeg-Mace are twin spices derived from the same Myristica fragrans (other Latin name - Myristicaceae) plant. As a spice they have been used in India since centuries not only as a spice but as a medicinal spice that is said to allay many diseases. It was originally, as Nutmeg, a native, in the form of 3,500 year old potsherd residues from the island of Pulau Ai, one of the Banda Islands in eastern Indonesia. However, from the 6th century it was widely cultivated in tropical countries such as India, China, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean and Malaysia. It is extensively grown on the Konkan coastal belt in the Western Ghats in the state of Kerala in southwest India. It is now threatened by habitat loss according to the IUCN Red List. Jaiphal-Ja...

Banashankari Amma Temple , Badami Did you know that an uncommon sentry tower at the Banashankari Amma Temple near Badami town in Karnataka is a mélange of Vijayanagara Hindu and Islamic architectural styles? Banashankari Amma Temple (or Banashankari temple) is a Hindu shrine located at Cholachagudda near Badami, in Bagalkot district, Karnataka. The temple is popularly called 'Shakambhari' 'Banashankari or Vanashankari' as it is located in the Tilakaaranya forest. The temple deity is also called the Shakambhari (Kannada: ಶಾಕoಭರಿ), an incarnation of the goddess Parvati. Locals also call the temple goddess as Balavva, Banadavva, Sunkavva, Shiravanthi, Chowdamma and Vanadurge. It is believed that Banashankari is the sixth incarnation of the warrior-goddess Durga. The forests around the temple have coconut, plantain and betel leaf plants and trees. Hence, it is also said that during a severe famine, the goddess provided vegetables and food for the people to survi...

Tirumala Temple – Administrative control before, during and after the British East India Company Did you know that the Tirumala Temple, which was under rise since 8th century or even much earlier under the patronage of Hindu Kings, came under the purview of the British East India Company indirectly controlling the Nawab of Arcot from 1751 AD and directly for the first time in 1801, and guided under specific 42 rules of the Bruce’s Code of 1821 until 1842-43 AD, in the early years of the reign of Queen Victoria?  The Tirumala Temple as a religious institution came under the special protection of the royal Hindu kings from hoary times with legendary stories. The earliest ruler who discovered the idol of Tiruvengadamudayan, later known as Lord Venkateshwara or Srinivasa was the Hindu ruler called Tondamana of Tondamandalam from early parts of the third century (or 813 AD?) followed by a stream of dedicated rulers/emperors of different regimes who not only built...

Lakkundi Did you know that Lakkundi, in the Gadag District of Karnataka, once a prosperous town now a village, is an ancient heritage site well known for a plethora of ruined Hindu and Jain Temples of the Chalukyan architectural style? Lakkundi , also known even prior to 10th-century as Lokkugundi city in Gadag district of Karnataka, with innumerable temples of Hindu and Jain denomination of Chalukyan architectural style, even flourished as one of the capitals of the Hoysalas in the 11th-12th centuries became a glorifed village due to Islamic depradations of the region. The village was re-discovered by Brtish archeologists only in the 19th-century rediscovered with over 50 temple ruins step wells and water reservoirs, spread around the small village in a deplorable state. The ruined state of the temples was attributed to depradations brought about by the Islamic Sultanates in and after the 14th-century who sought loot and political dominance over the South...

Kote Jalakantheshwara temple, Bengaluru Did you know that the Kote Jalakantheshwara temple in Kalasipalya in Bengaluru city, the oldest among all the Shiva Temples of the Chola period, in Karnataka state, has three sanctums of Jalakantheshwara, Parvathi and Kailashnatha? The Kote Jalakantheshwara temple near Kalasipalya bus terminus in Bengaluru city (erstwhile Bangalore), the oldest among all the Shiva Temples of the Chola period, in Karnataka state, was rebuilt by Kempegowda I, a chieftain under the Vijayanagara Empire, in the 16th century. Originally, when Cholas built it the shrine was a quaint simple sanctum which underwent major expansion to the present stage with entrance gopura, prakara, mandapas and sanctums, during the rule of Kempegowda. The temple has three sannidhis (sanctum sanctorums) dedicated as: Jalakantheshwara in the form of a divine Shiva Linga at the centre, his consort Parvathi on the left, and as Lord of Kailasa mountain called Kailashnatha to th...